Everyman's English Pronouncing Dictionary [antikvár]

introduction by Daniel Jones object of this book 1. The purpose of the present Dictionary is to record, with as much accuracy as is necessary for practical linguistic purposes, the pronuncia-tion used by a considerable number of typical Southern English people (see § 3) in ordinary conversation. 2. The book is a record of facts, not of theories or personal preferences. No attempt is made to decide how people ought to pronounce; ail that the dictionary aims at doing is to give a faithful record of the manner in which certain people do pronounce. the pronunciation 3. The pronunciation represented in this book is that which I believe to be very usually heard in everyday speech in the families of Southern English people who have been educated at the public schools.1 This pronunciation is also used (sometimes with modifications) by those who do not come from Southern. England, but who have been educated at these schools. The pronunciation may also be heard, to an extent which is considerable though difficult to specify, from natives of Southern England who have not been educated at these schools. It is probably accurate to say that a majority of Londoners who have had a university éducation, use either this pronunciation or a pronunciation not differing greatly from it.2 4. I believe that the pronunciation above referred to is readily under-stood in most parts of the English-speaking world. This resuit is perhaps due to the boarding-school system of éducation prevalent in England. For centuries past, boys from ail parts of Great Britain have been educated together in boarding-schools. If a boy in such a school has a marked local peculiarity in his pronunciation, it generally disappears or is modified during his school career under the influence of the différent mode of speaking which he hears continually around h im ; he conse-quently emerges from school with a pronunciation similar to that of the other boys. Similar considérations apply to modem boarding-schools for girls. 5. In day schools local pronunciations do not disappear nearly as readily as in the boarding-schools, because the pupils continually hear l'Public school' in the English sense, not in the American sense. ' The pronunciation is in the main that which I use myself. I have, however, put my pronunciation in a secondary place in ail cases where another form appears to me to be in more frequent use. Readers may like to know that my father and mother were both Londoners, and that I have lived all my life in or near London. I was educated at Radley College (Abingdon), University College School (London) and King's College, Cambridge.